Although there are very good tutorials on the Internet explaining how to set up a node, I missed a tutorial covering every aspect of the installation, configuration and monitoring of the node.
This tutorial is for Ubuntu, it should work in other Unix-like operating systems as well with some modifications.
Requirements :
- a fixed IP
- a list of peer nodes to connect to (at least one)
Notes:
$means commands typed in the command line
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Update your system
$ sudo apt-get -y update -
Install wget package
$ sudo apt-get -y install wget -
Install JDK v8 in your server https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-java-with-apt-get-on-ubuntu-16-04
Instructions provided to install the pre-compiled version of the node, you can compile it as well
- Create a directory to install the node
$ mkdir -p /opt/iota && cd /opt/iota - Download in that directory the testnet version of the compiled executable Java library
$ wget -O iri-testnet-1-4-0.jar https://github.com/iotaledger/iri/releases/download/v1.4.0-testnet/iri-1.4.0.jar - Create a configuration file in the same directory
$ touch iota.ini - My current configuration (i.e. the content of iota.ini) is:
[IRI]
PORT = 14700
UDP_RECEIVER_PORT = 14600
TCP_RECEIVER_PORT = 14265
NEIGHBORS = tcp://xx.xx.xx.xx:yyyyy udp://xx.xx.xx.xx:yyyyy udp://myhost.net:yyyyy tcp://anotherhost.net:15666
IXI_DIR = ixi
HEADLESS = true
DEBUG = true
TESTNET = true
DB_PATH = db
- Some comments: do not forget to add TESTNET = true; NEIGHBORS is a list of 7-9 nodes, don't make it any longer; go to the IOTA Slack to find neighbors for testnet
- Create a service file
$ sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/iota.service - Write this into the service file just created
Description=IOTA node
After=network.target
[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/iota
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xmx4g -Xms246m -jar iri-testnet-1.4.0.jar -c iota.ini --remote-limit-api "removeNeighbors, addNeighbors" --remote
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID KillMode=process Restart=on-failure
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=iota.service
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You have several interesting options here: -Xmx4g -Xms246m is the max/min RAM memory allocated to the node application; -c iota.ini points to the configuration file created above; --remote-limit-api serves to limit API calls to the node, which in this case are the sensitive add/remove neighbors operations.
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Launch the service
$ systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart iota -
Ensure the service works file
$ systemctl status iota -
Check the node works fine
$ curl http://localhost:14700 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"command": "getNodeInfo"}' | python -m json.tool(you get a JSON with lots of node parameters).
I have installed the monitoring tool in my laptop, but you could do it in your server as well. Follow the instructions in https://github.com/akashgoswami/ipm (link copied below):
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Install the NPM package
$ npm i -g iota-pm -
Create a directory
$ mkdir iota-node-monitor && cd mkdir iota-node-monitor -
For simplicity, add a start script
$ echo 'iota-pm --iri http://YOUR_NODE_IP:14700 -p 127.0.0.1:8888 ' >> node-monitor.sh && chmod +x node-monitor.sh -
Execute the script
$ source node-monitor.shand connect to http://127.0.0.1:8888/ to see how your node behaves real time :)
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IOTA IRI Github https://github.com/iotaledger/iri
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IOTA for Industrial IoT – IOTA node setup and implementation; this is where most of this tutorial comes from, kudos for the author. https://www.simform.com/iota-iiot-tutorial-part-2/
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IOTA node peer manager, nice job too: https://github.com/akashgoswami/ipm
tried to find some testnet nodes ..couldn't find one.also discord community is super stuck up no one replied even after nagging for couple days. Also how do I test, any active faucets out there?